3898 REPORT—1904. 
a dozen different forms of transactions. He thought there would be great 
difficulty in getting Societies to agree to any particular form unless the 
British Association gave them a definite standard form in which to publish 
their transactions. 
The Vice-Chairman (Dr. Tempest Anderson) said that the size of 
publications was one of the most pressing importance. He had been 
getting a considerable quantity of literature on the Martinique eruptions. 
The variety of sizes of these publications was heartrending. It was 
almost impossible to find anything approaching uniformity. When you 
take the magazine articles it is astonishing how much more uniformity 
prevails. Here, said the speaker, is the ‘Geographical Journal.’ That 
is probably one of the best sizes, but it is about half an inch too narrow. 
The corresponding journal in America is half an inch wider, and is able 
to have really good plates put in. The Journal of the Geographical 
Society cramps the size, and in these days of photography the extra half- 
inch improves the scale wonderfully. However, though the Royal Society, 
for instance, were to recommend all the other Societies to adopt uniformity, 
it is certain we should never get the public at large to press for an 
aiteration in the size of their favourite magazines. He thought the size 
of the ‘Century’ was about the average size of the magazines, and it would 
be very much better if all magazines were to keep to that size. As it is 
practically impossible to get the magazines to change their form, he con- 
sidered it would be a good thing if Societies would adopt the average 
size of the magazines and keep to it. He complained that the two Guide- 
books for the British Association meeting were each of a different size. 
Then the excursion programmes, which one would like to bind up as 
souvenirs of this meeting, were yet again of a different size. 
Mr. Hopkinson, in reply, said he had purposely excluded all reference 
to the size of publications, because that had been thoroughly discussed 
some years ago by a very influential committee, whose Report was 
presented at the Ipswich Meeting of the British Association in 1895 
(p. 77), Demy octavo (83 inches by 52 inches) or demy quarto (11} inches 
by 87 inches) was the size recommended by the Committee. The smaller 
size was that of the British Association Reports and of the publications 
of a very large number of other Societies. 
Mr. Stebbing rather thought that public opinion had considerably 
changed since the date of this Report, and that a larger size was now 
wanted. 
Mr. Hopkinson said that it had at all events been decided as the 
standard size of the British Association, and he did not think it would be of 
any use to discuss the subject further. | With regard, however, to sending 
the proceedings of Societies to the British Museum, he remarked that every- 
thing published in this country ought to be sent there—to the National 
Library—for in order to consult books we did not want to go to South 
Kensington, which is miles away. He admitted that Mr. B. B. Wood- 
ward had done excellent work in endeavouring to get the whole of the 
publications of the Societies, and he hoped that the Delegates would send 
their publications there also; but still they must not omit the British 
Museum in Bloomsbury. Mr. Hopkinson proceeded to refér to the assist- 
ance he had received from the Library Catalogue of the Natural History 
Museum in his search for information which he had been unable to 
obtain at the British Museum owing to the latter having neglected to bind 
the covers of a book issued in parts, and he urged the importance of 
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